


What Lies Between

by panaceaa



Category: South Park
Genre: In which Kyle is the one with Kenny’s curse, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-25
Updated: 2018-08-25
Packaged: 2019-07-02 06:22:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15790770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/panaceaa/pseuds/panaceaa
Summary: At the end, things start again at the beginning. Only this time a little bit differently.





	What Lies Between

When Kyle regains consciousness it’s to the sight of a woman.

She is someone he has never seen before, but if he had, he would have imagined she would have been in some sort of high budget movie or in some magazine that was fawning over the most beautiful women on earth. She was awe-striking, with long waist length hair almost floating around her as if caught in an ever-present wind, which appeared to be chestnut-brown one moment and a deep mahogany the next. Her outfit was a crisp white business suit, with a pin skirt and heels that shimmered a bright gold.

“Oh, it is good to see you back again, Kyle darling,” she says, her voice reverberating like a miniature symphony as she clasps her hands together over her chest, the gold jewelry adorning her wrist rattling with the motion and adding to her quiet song.

“Where are we?” Kyle finally manages softly, tearing his gaze away from her to take in the room around him. The high ceilings that towered over him, and the architecture that looked straight out of a mansion of some grand fantasy tale. White cement pillars, and a decadent red carpet that began under his feet and carried on throughout the hall that stretched limitlessly before him in both directions.

“Why in The Between, my dear,” she answers, as if that’s an answer at all.

“Between what?”

“Between everything. Time and space, life and death, between reality itself.” She shakes her head, exasperation leaking into her musical tone. “Do try not to ask such ridiculous questions. Now, come along now,” she says beckoning him with one single golden nailed finger, and then marches down the hallway without looking back to check and see if he was following.

He hurries after her, afraid he might be lost here forever without a guide. Lining the walls is a series of doors, almost like one ginormous wing of a hotel, except every door is nearly twice his height and appears to be covered in a red velvet that sinks into the surrounding white walls and golden embroidery.

“Do try not to open any of the doors,” she says as they walk, her heels clacking hallowly in the silence. “It would be rather unfortunate if you happened to fall through another portal, or lest you manage to disturb one of my siblings. I’m afraid they do rather detest mortals.”

Kyle tries not to think too hard about that, and quietly follows, feeling as if he’s in some sort of strange dream.

Finally she stops at a single door, this one looking identical to the rest. She opens it and Kyle’s breath immediately catches in his throat as his memories come flooding back and he remembers with striking clarity the events that had directly preceded his showing up here.

“I have to get back,” he chokes a moment before he whirls on the ethereal woman. “You have to send me back.”

She spares him nothing more than a glance before looking back towards what appeared to be a flickering portal. Floating near the back wall of the small room and giving off a strange sort of energy. On the other side of it was the image of Kyle himself laying in a hospital bed, skin far too pale. At his side sat Kenny, holding his hand tightly between the two of his with tears continuously falling from his cheeks.

“I plucked you out just as your heart was singing its final crescendo,” the woman finally says after a moment. “If I send you back now darling, then you will die.”

“No,” Kyle whispers, knowing that what she says is true yet unable to accept it. “I can’t leave him alone.”

“I know dear,” she says, sympathy clearly fake and exaggerated. “It is rather tragic that your Kenny will never be able to die. Will never be able to join you in death, no matter how hard he may try. At least...not as he is now.”

Hearing the lilt in her tone, Kyle finally tears his gaze away from the portal and looks back towards her. “What are you suggesting?”

She smiles.

“A mere...swap, if you will. A transfer. A return to the beginning with you carrying the immortal burden he now bears.”

The image suddenly changes before them, being replaced with one he recognizes as his mother. Young, and clearly pregnant with her only biological son.

He stares, unable to fathom what she’s saying or what he’s seeing.

“How?” He says quietly.

“You need not worry yourself with the specifics,” she says with a dismissive wave of her hand. “But know that the Eldritch creature that is currently fused with Carol McCormick’s unborn son can very easily be transferred to you.”

“I’d get Kenny’s curse...” he says aloud, mind whirling with a million thoughts.

He thinks of all of Kenny’s suffering. Of them as kids. The days where Kenny would climb up into his window and curl up with him in bed with a haunted look in his eyes. As young adults, telling him horror stories that Kyle could hardly believe yet that he listened to with focused intensity, holding Kenny’s hand and never once letting go. As adults. Kenny missing half of their honeymoon and then coming back covered in blood and leaves, apologizing profusely even though he knew he didn’t have to. Even though he knew that Kyle understood.

That he understood that whatever was inside of him was far beyond their power and would never go away.

That he wouldn't ever be able to die, not truly.

That he’d just keep coming back.

Over and over and over again.

“...That would change everything,” he finishes just as softy.

“Indeed it would,” the woman says. “But it is a necessary action if we are to restart the cycle.”

“I don’t understand.”

She sighs, light and airy, yet clearly annoyed. “No matter if you die in this moment, or sometime later, your husband will still remain immortal. I am giving you the chance to go back to the beginning and do something to fix that. Only you must first volunteer to carry his burden in his place because my powers have no control over the nether realm. Or, in other words, the creature inside of him will remain as strong as it is now, only your Kenny will be much younger and weaker. It will consume him. And so there must be...a transfer. Do you understand?”

Kyle nods.

He did understand, at least for the most part. He’d be able to save Kenny, and that’s all that really mattered.

And so, hands forming into determined fists at his sides, he chooses his fate.

“I’ll do it.”

***  
_Seventeen years later:_

“Don’t worry about it guys, it’s only one day.”

At his words Kenny is suddenly met with two pairs of eyes. One a soft pastel blue and full of pity, and another the fierce and disapproving gaze of Wendy Testaburger.

“I just don’t like the idea of you skipping class, Kenny,” Wendy says in that motherly way of hers. But before he can say anything, Bebe speaks up from beside Butters, where she was currently busy fixing her lipstick as she usually did most mornings before school.

“Why’d you come at all today, anyway?” She says, pausing to purse her lips at her reflection. “I would’ve at least slept in.”

It was a good question, he supposed. He’d decided to skip school today, and yet here he was, standing out front of South Park High at eight in the morning with his three best friends. Funny how things worked.

“Come on, obviously I wanted to see you guys.” He says sweetly, only to earn two skeptical looks and one slightly touched one from Butters. “...And maybe wanted to see if anyone wanted to join me for a day of school-free fun?”

Wendy immediately gives them all sharp looks. Butters cringes back but Bebe doesn’t look away from her mirror. “Sorry Kenny,” Bebe says, “but I didn’t spend over an hour getting ready this morning just so I could ditch. You should've texted me.”

Dammit. Well, there went his hopes and dreams. Right out the window. Buried under make-up and the disapproving glare of Wendy Testaburger. He really should have seen this coming.

“You guys are no fun,” Kenny pouts.

“I wish you’d take things a bit more seriously,” Wendy says, crossing her arms and leaning her weight back on her hip. “You should have studied last night.”

“Hey, you know I care a lot about my grades,” Kenny quickly points out, defending himself. “That’s the whole reason why I don’t want to take that damn test today. I just didn’t have any time to study, I was working.”

“Only until ten.”

One day he was really going to sit down and try to figure out just how Wendy seemed to know everything. It’d be a little unsettling if she wasn’t one of the kindest most respectable people he’d ever met.

“Yeah well, after work I had a date.”

“Oh,” Bebe perks up in interest, “who with this time?”

“Just some girl I met at Token’s party last weekend.” He shrugs. “She’s hot as hell, but damn was she boring.”

“You say that about everyone,” Bebe says, shooting him an exasperated look.

“Well, it’s true.”

“But well gee, Kenny,” Butters pipes up, “you musta went out with more people than I can count at this point.”

“Kenny’s just picky,” says Wendy before he can answer.

“Can you blame me?” Kenny adds, shooting Wendy his best smarmy grin.

Wendy’s groan gets lost in the sound of the school’s warning bell. “Alright we better go,” she says, before shooting Kenny one last look, “but we’re gonna talk more about this later.”

“Okay, mom.”

He shares a quick goodbye with both Butters and Bebe, and then they’re gone. Going off into the school and leaving him to his day of freedom.

With a sigh, he turns away from the school and marches off in the opposite direction. He’d been banking on someone agreeing to hang out with him, and now he had no idea what he was even supposed to do with his time. He should probably study, but he could usually only concentrate at night, so that counted that out for the time being. It might be a good idea to try to pick up some extra hours at one of his two part-time jobs, yet he didn’t really feel like making up some lie as to why he wasn’t in school. They were usually dead on weekdays anyway and probably didn’t need the extra help. And, of course, it’s not like he exactly had the money to see a movie or something.

Damn, what did kids normally do when skipping school?

As it turns out, the world must have a weird sense of humor, because his question is kind of answered in perhaps the strangest way not a moment later.

Kenny is walking down towards the park when he spots a slightly familiar face sitting on a bench and his steps abruptly come to a halt as he stands blinking in surprise.

In truth, he’s not exactly sure why it is he finds himself so startled by this sudden new development. It’s not like he ever thought much about Kyle Broflovski or even held much in the way of conversation with him. Still, seeing his classmate since preschool sitting alone and doing nothing on a day that everyone should have been in class was unexpected, to say the least. He hardly saw much of him at all nowadays. The redhead had always had a rather large habit of not showing up to class, and apparently that had translated to his high school career.

Surely, someone as offhandedly terrifying and bad boyish as Kyle Broflovski had to have better things to do with his time then moping on benches.

Kenny had always suspected he’d maybe been out living it up, or something. After all, it’s not like Kyle ever had the best track record at South Park High. Infamous for his terrifyingly short temper, a mean right hook, and morbid comments that bordered on unsettling. He only really talked to Stan Marsh, South Park’s resident emo kid who didn’t seem to mind Kyle’s weird obsession with cult books or his offhanded comments about death.

Yet here he was now, gloom and doom himself, brooding alone on some park bench a short walk away from the school.

For a moment, Kenny considers just walking past him and talking to the girls and Butters about the weird occurrence later. From what he’d seen and heard, the farther away from Kyle you were the better. Still, something stops him. Maybe it’s the lack of better things to do, or maybe it’s just inherent curiosity.

Either way, he finds his feet crossing the short distance until he’s standing directly in front of him. Kyle, appearing to be lost in thought or something, doesn’t look up, and instead just continues to stare pensively down at his feet. Suddenly feeling more than a little unsure, Kenny clears his throat and then speaks.

“Skipping again today?”

At his words the redhead suddenly looks up, eyes regarding him with clear surprise and Kenny can’t help but wonder if people coming to talk to him is really that much of an odd occurrence. Then he blinks, a slow thoughtful motion that makes Kenny feel a little bit scrutinized. He says nothing as he looks at him, green eyes bright and strangely beautiful through the shadows of his face, and Kenny’s confidence wavers. Here he was, the school’s most infamous flirt, and suddenly he was reduced to trying his best not to squirm under another’s gaze.

Thus was the power of Kyle Broflovski, he supposed.

Then suddenly Kyle looks away, and Kenny slumps with quiet relief at no longer being pinned under his stare. The boy gives a quick shrug and answers, “Apparently.”

Still a little shaken, it takes Kenny a moment to remember what he had even asked him. Distantly, he’s aware that his heart is beating rapidly in his chest, and he’s not quite sure whether that’s due to fear or something else entirely.

“Oh,” Kenny finally manages, thankful that his voice comes out sounding nonchalant. “Well, me too. School’s pretty dumb, right?”

The words had been said without thinking in hopes of finding some kind of common ground with the guy, yet Kyle’s lips tilt further into a frown. “I always want to go,” he replies, tone sounding strangely somber, “it just turns out that life has other plans most days. Like today.”

“Did something happen?”

“I walked out of my front door and was stabbed before I hit the sidewalk,” Kyle says without missing a beat, locking his eyes once again with Kenny’s as if daring him to say something. “My brother stepped over me as I bled out.”

Kenny quickly nods, not daring to say anything to go against the redhead’s deathly serious tone. Kyle was known for his morbidity, yet with the way he says the words he almost finds himself believing them despite their impossible nature. “Mind if I sit?” Kenny asks him in lieu of commenting, gesturing to the bench.

Of course, he isn’t quite let off the hook so easily.

Kyle’s gaze narrows. “Aren’t you going to laugh, call me sick and morbid like everyone else?”

“I could,” Kenny admits, offering a small shrug and a weak smile, “but then you’d probably just punch me.” Kyle snorts but doesn’t say anything as Kenny goes and sits beside him. “So uh, I’m guessing that’s the reason you’re so broody.”

Kyle shoots him a glare.

“I am not _brooding_.”

Kenny allows himself a teasing smirk. “Uh huh, so that scowl means you’re having a great time? Coulda fooled me.”

“I told you,” Kyle says slowly, tone humming with the smallest hint of warning. “I had a rough morning.”

“Right. You were stabbed.” Suddenly not to sure what to make of the situation and feeling a bit like he was dealing with some sort of wild animal that could snap at any moment, Kenny keeps his tone as light as possible when he adds, “...Was there anything else you wanted to add to that?”

Kyle turns to him, keeping both his tone and expression suspiciously flat when he asks, “You’re Kenny, right?”

Kenny blinks.

Of course, it’s completely logical that Kyle would know his name, he reminds himself. Yet, somehow, he can’t help the bubble of surprise that rises through his system. Not to mention the strange little shiver that quickly follows at the way his name sounds falling from his lips.

He tries not to dwell too much on that little fact and nods in confirmation.

“Okay well I don’t know why you’re trying to be nice to me, _Kenny_.” His name comes out as more of a sneer this time, and the sound of it only adds fuel to the different kind of fire now sparking within him. “But you can cut it the fuck out. I’m fine.”

The fire burns out the fear, and Kenny finds himself matching the redhead’s glare.

He was only trying to be _nice_ to him. To give him a fair chance despite the rumors.

What a complete and utter _asshole_.

“Is there a reason you try so hard to push everyone away?” Kenny grits out. “It’s no wonder everyone thinks you’re an asshole.”

He doesn’t give an inch of ground, refusing to break away the force of his glare even when Kyle’s green eyes alight with their own fire. Coldness burning away in the face of a challenge.

Still, Kenny is not afraid.

Kyle’s voice, when he speaks, is pitched dangerously low. “Shut the fuck up and just go back to your pansy-ass life, princess. The fucking golden boy of South Park,” he scoffs, “you have no idea what life is like for me.”

“You know what, maybe I don’t,” Kenny says, immediately shooting to his feet. Rising up and stiffening his shoulders to appear even taller. He doesn’t remember ever being so fucking angry, and he’s not even exactly sure why Kyle is able to get under his skin so easily. But he has. And even as Kenny glares down at him, the asshole still doesn’t move. “Maybe I don’t know what it’s like to sit there and feel sorry for myself all day because I’m too fucking busy working two jobs just to help feed my family. And yeah I have good grades, and you know what I’m not ashamed of that because I worked my ass off for them so that I can have a fucking future. One where me and my siblings don’t have to sit around scraping up pennies for the rest of our lives just so we can have a damn roof over our heads. So fine, maybe I don’t know what the hell your life is like, but don’t you dare go and call mine easy.”

It’s only when his voice cracks at the end of his rant that he realizes that his heart is aggressively pounding in his chest and he feels terrifyingly close to tears. His burst of anger fades, leaving him feeling weak and shaken. And suddenly unable to meet Kyle’s eyes, he turns to hurry away and try to forget this whole thing ever happened.

He’s stopped by a surprisingly soft voice.

“Wait.” Despite knowing that he should ignore him, Kenny finds himself turning to face Kyle anyway. Whether it’s due to the almost desperate pitch to his voice, or the need to know exactly what he has to say in way of explanation, Kenny isn’t really sure. Then again, even Kyle himself seems confused as if he hadn’t intended to stop him and now was unsure of what exactly he was supposed to say. He glances down at the ground with a frown. “I’m sorry,” he says eventually, "I’m not too great at talking to people.” Then, glancing up, he gives him a slightly shaky smile that’s way more endearing then it has a right to be. “Usually everyone just avoids me.”

Kenny hesitates, but only for a moment before he finds his lips tilting into a small smile of his own. He’d laid out his heart, and whatever he said must have been enough to break down Kyle’s well maintained wall of defensiveness. Who was he kidding, he couldn’t just walk away now.

“Well you do give off a bit of a terrifying vibe. But I can dig that, long as you stop being an ass.”

The smile he gets in response to his words causes his heart to skip a beat. Kyle looked damn good with a smile, and he wonders just how many people in the world had ever got to see it. “I can try,” Kyle tells him, a shade of amusement in his tone.

“Peachy.” Kenny responds, voice only slightly unsteady. He moves to sit back down on the bench, and Kyle follows suit. “So bad boy Broflovski, what’s your big excuse?”

Kyle raises a brow. “You’re going to have to be more specific, I do a lot of things.”

“Oh, I’m sure you do,” Kenny quips with a wink. “But I’m talking about the whole skipping school thing, as well as the general assholery and broodiness.”

“I’m always an asshole.”

“Charming.”

“Well, if you really want to know,” Kyle says, crossing his arms and leaning back on the bench, “Besides the whole dying thing, my dad’s been trying to convince my mom to send me away to some boarding school. They’ve been talking about it for a while, but I think he’s finally hit his breaking point.” He glowers at the ground and his tone darkens with bitterness. “I’m failing all my classes because I can’t show up half the time and my family thinks I’m a failure.”

“Damn, sorry dude,” Kenny says and means it. “I could maybe tutor you, if you want?”

Shooting him another small smile Kyle says, “I don’t really know if that would help.”

“Yeah, but it might.” He shrugs. “At least we could try. And think of all the fun we could have during our study sessions,” he adds, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. In response, Kyle snorts and his eyes sparkle with undeniable amusement.

“I really can’t tell if you’re joking or not.”

Kenny couldn’t really tell either, if he was being honest. Still, Kyle didn’t need to know that.

Leaning in conspiratorially, he grins and lightly says, “Guess you’re just gonna have to find out.”

Kyle seems to search his face for a moment, before he gives in with a sigh and holds out his hand. “Alright,” he says. “Here, give me your phone.”

Kenny acquiesces, pulling his old cracked phone from his pocket and handing it over to Kyle. If Kyle has any opinion on the poor shape the device is in he doesn’t comment on it, and instead his fingers fly over the screen as he presumably puts in his number. When he passes it back a moment later, Kenny looks at the screen and nearly chokes on his laugh, the words ‘Bad Boy Broflovski’ looking back up at him from the contact screen now home to his phone number.

“And here I thought you didn’t have a sense of humor,” he manages through his giggles. Kyle smiles again, and watches him with an unreadable expression.

“I have my moments.”

It’s only when Kenny’s giggling comes to an end that he meets Kyle’s eyes, and the moment he does the world seems to freeze. A certain familiarity striking him, something that his very soul seems to recognize and sings for him to never look away. To get lost in the sea of green forever. His breath catches and he quickly tears his gaze away and stands, trying to the calm the sudden pounding of his heart.

“So,” Kenny says after a moment, needing to fill the silence and thankful that his voice doesn’t come out shaky. “What do you say we get out of here?”

Kyle blinks up at him.

“And go where?”

“Anywhere.” He shrugs, and offers his best mischievous grin. “Come on, live a little. If we’re both skipping class, might as well do something fun with our time.”

He holds out his hand.

Kyle eyes it skeptically before flicking his gaze back up to Kenny’s. The soul-clutching feeling doesn’t return this time, but he does give a small slightly nervous smile that makes something in Kenny’s stomach flutter before he finally places his hand into his.

It only takes a second for Kenny to pull him to his feet, but still the brief moment of contact causes pleasant tingles to travel through his skin and his skin prickles even after the warmth of his hand is long gone.

This boy would without a doubt be the death of him.

***  
_The Between:_

“Back at your games again, sister?”

The woman gives a proud huff, shooting an offended look at the figure now standing in her doorway. “ _Games_  is such a juvenile word,” she tells him. “I’m certainly doing more for the future then you gluttonous fools have ever managed.”

“You wound us. We are only doing as we were told.”

“You have become _complacent_ ,” she shoots back.

“And you act as if we are not trapped here for eternity. What would you have us do?”

At his words, she finally turns away from him and looks back towards the portal before her. Gazing into it at the glimpse of the world existing at the other side.

“It will destroy earth, brother,” she says softly. “Eventually. If left unchecked.”

“Which should be of no concern to us.”

“Yet, what if it is?” She challenges him, to which he falls silent as if he has no answer.

“You really think they can do it?” He speaks up eventually, an honest question in his gaze.

“Perhaps. When they are ready.”

“Wouldn’t it just be easier to tell them?”

“They would just forget it anyway once they were reborn, and I do not fancy wasting my breath.” Leaning back in her chair, she crosses her legs gracefully. “In time, perhaps it will come to them.”

“And if it doesn’t?”

She raises a delicate eyebrow. “Then I suspect we will be having more guests in the foreseeable future. That, or maybe I will offer a bit of...assistance,” she says with a wicked smirk. “Now wouldn’t that be _exciting_?”

“You’re not planning to-“

“No.” She answers curtly, cutting him off. “At least not yet. Humans are not the brightest creatures, but they’ve been getting closer with every cycle.” Waving a hand, she shoots him a derisive look as he remains hovering in the doorway. “Now my dear brother, why don’t you stop hovering there and sit down,” she says, leaning in towards the portal slightly with a grin sliding gracefully across her features. “This is always right where things get _interesting_.”

**Author's Note:**

> By popular demand, I will officially be continuing this at some point. So stay tuned, my dudes<3


End file.
